“Once inside the farmhouse you insisted on both having your bag—for your pain pills you said—and on using the bathroom. So, we helped you into the bathroom and gave you your duffle bag. Once the bathroom door was securely shut, you did a quick makeup job on your leg to make it look severely bruised. Then we brought you back to the bed and did some quick first aid on what we thought was a broken leg, but that wasn’t the case.
“Once everyone had dispersed, me to the master bedroom, Maddy into the bathroom for a shower, and Spook out to the barn—just as the note you gave him instructed—you got up from the bed. Then, using the rope you had stolen from the barn and slipped into the duffle bag, you climbed down and went out to the barn yourself.
“We had already taken off your boots, and you didn’t want to risk taking the time to slip them on, so you went out in just your socks. That’s why your socks were so wet and muddy when they shouldn’t have been. Once you got to the barn, you snuck up behind Spook, slipped the electrical cord around his neck and hoisted him up on the beam. When you were sure he was dead, you ran back to the house, climbed up the rope into the bedroom, and then using something for leverage—the cane chair perhaps—you broke your own leg for real. You got back in the bed, truly in pain this time, and waited for someone to return and find you.”
Tech hung his head in shame, still shaking from adrenalin. “He deserved it. Daniel and I hated Spook. He threatened to kick me and Maddy off the show. This show was my life,” he whispered,
“He was threatening to take it all away from me. I knew he could do it, too. The producers loved him. He was the whole reason they picked us up in the first place. So I knew I had to get rid of him. That way the show would become mine, and with his death, the ratings would shoot through the roof.” Tech buried his head in his hands and Maddy cried silently.
“Too bad the show just got canceled instead,” Benjamin remarked, shaking his head in disgust.
“I had a strange feeling at the hospital,” Sonja nodded. “Your nonchalant attitude toward Spook’s death, and more importantly toward Maddy being the main suspect, clued me in. You didn’t care if Maddy took the blame, as long as you didn’t get caught, but once I saw the makeup, I got very curious. I was confused about why you would have that style of makeup in your bag, but when I saw the muddy rope in the room upstairs, everything started coming together.”
“I asked Benjamin to show me some paperwork, so that I could see a sample of your handwriting. When I saw it, I knew it was you who wrote the note to Spook, not Maddy.”
Tech began to cry. “It was a perfect plan. Everything would have been mine.”
Sonja stared at him, unmoved. “Your greed was your downfall, and now you’ve lost everything.”
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Benjamin muttered, arms crossed.
CHAPTER 15
Sheriff Thompson arrived a few minutes later and took Tech away in handcuffs, loading him into the back of the police cruiser.
“Well, it looks like you were right,” he admitted.
Sonja nodded, “I’m sorry for sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“Well, thankfully we now have both suspects in custody.”
“I’m glad to help where I can.”
“Next time, let me handle it,” he instructed. “Got it?”
“Got it,” she agreed.
Sheriff Thompson squeezed her shoulder and got in the cruiser and headed for the police station.
Maddy stood by, dazed and crying.
Sonja placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
Maddy wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“I just wasn’t expecting this,” she said softly. “Tech always seemed so kind. He was the most level-headed person on our team.”
“I know this must be painful,” Sonja sympathized. “What will you do now?”
Maddy shrugged, miserable. “The show is over, both Spook and Tech are gone. Benjamin is staying here. I suppose I’ll just return home. I haven’t seen my mom and dad in probably three years.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” Sonja tried to be encouraging.
Maddy nodded. “After all this chaos I think it will be good to see them.” She picked something up from a pile of equipment. “Here, I want you to have this.” She held out the pouch with the Seer inside.
“You want me to have it? Don’t you need to return it to the studio?”
She shook her head. “Spook built it himself, but now I feel like it belongs to you.”
“I couldn’t take it,” she admitted.
“I want you to. I want you to be able to remember us,” Maddy smiled faintly. “Well, remember me.”
She nodded. “Alright. I’m sure I’d never forget you with or without it, but I’ll take it,” she agreed, thinking that Sheriff Thompson might want it for evidence.
Maddy held the pouch out and Sonja took it.
“Well,” she sighed, “I guess I’ll be seeing you.”
Sonja nodded. “Bye. Take care.”
Maddy opened the passenger door on the van and slid in.
“Looks like we’re off,” Benjamin commented, walking up to the van and closing Maddy’s door for her.
“Your flight back to L.A. is tomorrow morning?” Sonja asked, when he came back around to the driver’s side.
“Early,” he replied. “We’ll need to be out of here at around 5:30 to be to the airport on time.”
“When do you think you’ll be back in Haunted Falls?” Sonja asked.
“I shouldn’t be gone more than a week or two. I’m just dropping off equipment and then moving out of my apartment. I’ll probably need to sell some stuff as well.”
“Well, I’ll be looking for you when you come back,” she grinned, biting her lip shyly. “Come into the diner and I’ll give you a free plate of waffles. With bacon.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that,” Benjamin’s smile was warm.
“And you’ll make sure Maddy gets home okay?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed, loading a few last items into the back of the van. “I’ll look after her, make sure she gets back to her mom and dad.”
“Good.”
Benjamin came back around to the driver’s side. “You know, there’s still one thing that I don’t quite understand,” he admitted.
“What’s that?”
“How did you get the ghostly figure of Spook to appear over Tech? I didn’t set that up. I don’t even have the equipment to do something like that.”
Sonja shook her head. “I didn’t set that up.”
“Then who did?”
She shivered. “I think it’s safe to say Spook set it up himself.”
Summer Prescott Books Publishing 2016
All Rights Reserved.
Battered and Buttered Waffle: Book 2 in The Diner of the Dead Series Page 9